what do you use as a gauge for UTS ( unworked thread space)?

[northern robin]

asked this in on line tatting class..the answer was in a u tube video...which I cannot watch..so thought maybe someone here has some ideas...the UTS needs to be the same throughout. Ideally in my mind would be something with a fold..so that it could be rested on the UTS and one would be free to tat without having to hold it. So my Picot gauges ( cut up creadit cards) will not work. In pattern like hens and chickens..all rings and the UTS..there would not be a set of DS to use to measure that would be "in a row"....paper would work..but knowing me after a few times I wound bend it or something..robin N ME

[Susan B T]

I usually eyeball it. But I have been tatting almost 40 years. I have also used a perm. fine tip marker to mark a line on my finger if it is really critical. Just wait and make sure the marked line is dry on you finger before tatting.

[carolivy]

If you need some folded guages that you can keep, get yourself an Essay binder...the kind that is a folded sheet of clear plastic with a plastic spine that you slide on. Then you can cut your Bare Thread Guages from the folded side of the binder...or any folded piece of plastic...then cut one side just a bit shorter and punch a hole in the longer side and add a jump ring and lobster claw. Then you will be able to put them all together on a ring or a chattelaine.

[Sherongb]

Take a piece of cardstock, cut a slit in it as far from the edge as you want the bare thread space to be. After the ring put the thread through the slit. Now make the next ring using the edge of the cardstock as the pinch area to start the ring.

This was shared with me several years ago and I keep on passing it on. Since the ring won't pull through the slit it keeps the space the same length.

[xstchntat]

I use my plastic ones made from the plastic lid of a sherbit tub for both picots and bare thread spaces. I made them in many sizes and used links to put them on a plastic heart, punching the holes with a 1/8" craft punch and then threading the heart onto a ribbon. They can be seen in my stash album.

[Judy]

Oh boy, I love these ideas. I've been "practicing" again with my shuttles so I don't forget, and I'm doing one of those zig zag rings only with the space in the middle for a ribbon. Not so neat, those BTS or UTS, but with some more ideas. I think I'll try Sherongb's first. Got the cardstock.

[cin-tatter]

I have used a popsicle stick with lines drawn at different intervals to represent the space needed and use it to measure the thread then pinch the spot and start my tatting from there. I made a sun catcher using this method and it came out very nice.

[MercyPres]

I use my picot gauges too, but think I will try Sherongb's idea on the next project.

[Karen Bickerton]

I have used the old "purling pin" method--using any round object of consistent diameter, wind the thread around a certain number of times--depending on how large your UTS is. I used the shaft of a crochet hook for migonette lace and got a consistent result, and found the pin could be held in my thread hand in the pinch making it "hands free"